Al Jardine On Brian Wilson Dates: 'This Is Our Version Of The Reunion Tour'

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Brian Wilson's current tour with Jeff Beck is going from strength to strength with co-founding Beach Boys Al Jardine and David Marks helping push the envelope at every stop. Among the deep Beach Boys catalogue favorites now appearing in the show are the Surf's Up classic, "'Til I Die," the Beach Boys' version of the Four Freshmen evergreen "There Hearts Were Full Of Spring," and David Marks' rendition of the Dennis Wilson Friends gem, "Little Bird."

Despite the defection of Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, who continue to tour with Love's side band under the Beach Boys moniker, Al Jardine told BrowardPalmBeach.com that he, Wilson, and Marks are carrying along the good vibes from last year's Beach Boys 50th Anniversary Reunion Tour: "We had a ball on the reunion tour, and we were thinking, 'We're not stopping. We're not done yet. Maybe that other guy was ready to go back and be whatever he wanted to be as the 'Beach Boys,' but Brian and I and David are still creating. So this is our version of the reunion tour, doing a lot of similar songs but a lot of new ones too. We've been working on this quite a while. I was with Brian on the 2006 Pet Sounds tour, and then David joined recently for the reunion. So we're going, 'Hey, we're having a good time. Why quit?'"

Both Jardine and Marks, along with Jeff Beck and former Beach Boy Blondie Chaplin -- who is a special guest on the tour -- appear on Brian Wilson's upcoming album. Jardine shed some light in to the recent recording sessions: "There are a couple of interesting things. I got to sing the lead on my first car song. Well, I shouldn't say my first car song. It's actually my second car song, although we won't be doing it on this tour to my great disappointment. We'll probably pull it out for the spring/summer period. . . It's about a little souped-up coupe, and it's so cute. It's got all that great Beach Boys energy. It's called "Run, James, Run."

Al Jardine is no stranger to being worked to the bone by Brian Wilson in the recording studio. He told us that the group was running on such a tight and demanding schedule in the mid-'60s, that the band's legendary Pet Sounds sessions were mostly a blur: "We were so busy and so exhausted most of the time, we were like sleepwalking into these sessions. We were literally doing 10 to 12 hour days back-to-back after we'd get home from touring. It was very difficult to even concentrate."

Brian Wilson and Jeff Beck -- along with Al Jardine and David Marks -- will be the musical guests on NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, October 10th.